Find interesting places nearby

The Facebook app for Android can do certain tricks that the desktop site can’t — such as making better use of your location. Choose Nearby Places to find places around you that have their own Facebook Page.

It’s a handy way to discover restaurants, bars, shops or other venues if you’re in an unfamiliar part of the world. Tap on any entry for more information about that place.

Filter your news feed

You don’t have to settle for the standard news feed list of updates. The Facebook app gives you access to your customized lists from the main menu too. To change the list someone appears in, simply head to their profile and tap Friends > Edit Friend List.

If you want to add or remove any whole lists (‘family’ or ‘best friends’, for example), you’ll need to do this from a computer.

Share from other apps

Sharing across apps is one of Android’s great strengths, so make use of it: tap the Share button while you’re viewing a photo gallery, web browser or anything else, and Facebook will appear as one of the options.

This is a great way of sharing something to your timeline without having to actually go into Facebook, and you still get all the usual status update options.

Save videos and links for later

So many friends to browse through, so little time in the day… luckily there’s a solution to this problem. If you tap on the drop-down arrow next to a news feed post containing a video or link, you can save the content to come back to later.

Bookmarked content is kept under the Saved heading on the main app menu (tap See All under Apps if it isn’t visible) so you can return to it at your leisure.

Check your account security

From inside the Facebook app, tap Account Settings, Security and Active Sessions — here you can see all of the places and devices associated with your Facebook account.

If you spot anything suspicious, click on the cross icon to log out from it. It’s better to be safe than sorry: if you make a mistake and log out from one of your own devices or browsers, you can still log back in again.

Hide a friend’s feed

Sometimes you may wish to stop seeing someone’s updates without actually unfriending them or blocking them. You may wish to keep up the pretense that you are friends despite never wishing to see or hear from them again.

To do this, go to their page, tap on Following, then select Unfollow. They won’t know it, but you’ll never see their posts, or posts they are tagged in again.

Use a lighter, third-party app to save memory

The Facebook app is not only enormous, but it is also a resource hog. You can save space and memory by using an alternative app, such as Metal or Tinfoil, which are basically custom skins for the web version of Facebook. Metal is a bit prettier and offers more features, such as a notification tab, and floating window. There is also an official Facebook Lite app.

Otherwise, you can just add a shortcut to the Facebook website on your home screen and use that. In Chrome, you can also allow notifications from the site by heading to Settings > Site settings > Notifications and making sure they’re turned on and unblocked for Facebook.

Find Wi-Fi

Facebook has just rolled out its new feature to help users locate the nearest Wi-Fi hotspots globally. A Facebook spokesperson said, “To help people stay connected with their communities and find experiences around them, we’re rolling out a feature to help find wi-fi near you. We’ve been testing this feature and received great feedback that it’s not only helpful for people when traveling, but is especially useful in areas with poor mobile network connectivity.”

Here’s how to use the feature: Within the Facebook app (on Android or iOS), tap the More tab (the three lines icon on the top right) and then Find Wi-Fi. Once you have the Find Wi-Fi tab open, turn it on. Then you can see all available hotspots near your location on a map, plus information like opening times for the businesses hosting them.